Wimbledon 2013

[Richie1308]

Later for the report.

[VMoe86]

This was a crazy match to follow the score in the fifth set. Congratulations to Richie for winning this epic match, and also to pidzi for giving such a match!

[Richie1308]

Richie (Tsonga) beats Pidzi (Murray) : 6-3 6-4 2-6 2-6 13-11

A report for this insane, crazy match is needed.
Not much to say in the first two sets, I dominated him in power, rushing the net, not letting him a chance to install his game from the baseline in long rallies.

the match really start at the 3rd set where he breaks me early in the set and is getting to get hot on passing shots. I sank at the net and his defense was getting really excellent so this was an easy set for him.

In the 4th set I was more concentrated than in the 3rd but it didn't change the score, as he started to make great offensive choices, letting me in trouble not really knowing what to change in my tactic now that he increased his level. I wanted to at least have hum serve for the set to serve in first in the 5th but in the end I couldn't do it.

Now this is where starts the thriller. Until 3-2 no service games are in danger but this is were the match is really getting epic. He has a break point at a key moment as he can lead 4-2, I save it thank to a good outside serve and a forehand winner on the line. No area of security, absolutely none. I manage to save the game and then I break him on my 4th or 5th occasion on....a net cord ! But he breaks me back just behind : hard to accept.

But then, I rebreak him, thinking that this time, it was over and that I escaped the trap....and no, I lead 15-0 before losing the net 4 points in a row. Here, I don't feel good at all, I had two chances to conclude this match and I let them over. Not to help, he makes a love game just behind, putting me in a very difficult position. It is where I really feared losing, and I absolutely didn't want to lose after having those two breaks. More than wanting to win, I really didn't want to lose and that's what probably saved me.

At 7-6 for him, he was closer than ever to win this, leading 0-30 on my serve. At this moment, honestly I felt that is was over, that I let my chance pass and that I would need a miracle to get back. And.....that's what happened : a net cord, 2 aces and a forehand winner down the line after an average return, 7-7. Somehow, it's here that I started to think that finally, it was not over.

Then, no break points until 11-11. I give all I have to lead 0-40 but then he makes 4 brillant points, tactically speaking, to have the advantage. And then, it's over : 2 ugly faults, and too defensive on the 3rd point : he almost gives me the break after saving those 3 break points and I couldn't have asked for better at this point. Still, I almost did the same mistake as before, being led 0-30 on my serve. But no, not this time, I definitely didn't want to let this one pass and finally was able to conclude this epic fight.

Now I have nothing else to say than congratulations to Pidzi who showed a big level after the 2 first sets and deserved as much the victory for sure, was able to be aggressive not to let himself walked over by Tsonga's power. Now I'll take some rest before the next match, especially seen my potential opponents for the next round.

[C4iLL]

C4iLL vs AlexJasmins = 6-3 6-3 6-4.

Well, the Australian Open winner Alex was globally below his best level, especially on the two first sets, and on my side I was in control.

First set : I quickly led 5-1 in 9 minutes without playing my best. I relax, he came back 5-3 but I concluded the set.

Second set : I just maintain this sufficient level, just staying solid, and it was okay. He gave me a break by doing 2-3 faults in one service game and I concluded the set logically 6-3.

Third set : I led 2-0, I relaxed, he played a bit better, he came back 2-2 and led 3-2. At that time, on certain exchanges he was not far from his best level, showing real class, but I managed to increase my level as soon as he increases his, to always stay in control.
At 3-3 I broke to lead 4-3, and 5-3.
I had then 3 match points on his service but someone disturbed me at home, and he then saved them. At 5-4, I concluded the match on my service.

On some exchanges you feel Alex can be great, and this resulted in beautiful points, but he does not resist to pressure as he used to be and he's then not as consistent as he was as the high level when he won AO for instance. The lack of competition might have an impact in his case I think.

[C4iLL]

Richie vs C4iLL = 6-1, 7-5, 2-6, 1-6, 6-1

There are no really qualification to describe how this battle was. Extremely intense, ping pong tennis everytime, winners festival etc... The conditions in game were perfect by the way.

At the end, the more regular player won

First set : he totally deserves it as he reached quickly a very high level while I was not ready yet. At 5-0 for him, I began to play at his great level.

Second set : the real battle begins with beautiful winners from both of us and extremely tactical exchanges. I could have won it but globally he was still a bit better and regular than me on this set.
He got the first break, the next games were a succession of breaks from both side (including a break with a netcord from me ^^) : we felt indeed more comfortable on the service of the opponent than on ours.

At 5-5, I don't remember what happened but he broke and his last service game was easy and straightforward.

Third set : I think I played the best tennis I can here in the third and fourth, a total tennis champaign touching the lines a lot, always aiming for it via inside out. The key was mainly the service returns which I always put very deep. I got a break and a second one at 5-2 to win the set.

Fourth set : I continue my technical and tactical domination with mixed patterns, playing very close to the lines and giving him headache in defense . 6-1 here, but the score doesn't reflect the battle which was still extremely huge.

Fifth set : My tactics were strong, as my timing, I really thought I would continue on this great rythm. And mentally I had the edge.
The first games confirmed me this in a way. I led 1-1 and 0-30 with good wrong foot and suddenly blackout.
I don't exactly know how this happens, but the match completely turned. I suspect the fact that I naturally went a step back from baseline without realizing, which completely changed the nature of exchanges (allowing him to hit deeper shots and me less deep

So he saved his service, just afterwards, my level collapsed and he quickly led 5-1 with a huge confidence and a great level.

At 5-1 I woke up, getting 3 break points (0-40), but he saved them all with talent, and he concluded the match.

Sum-up : he's the best opponent I ever faced. His average technical and tactical level is the highest I ever met, you never have 1 relax exchange. Great mental too.
The defeat is disappointing because I managed to control the match at a moment but that's life : I played at the best level during two sets and half, and the match was extremely fun to play.

Main Stats :

Richie C4iLL

70 Winners 62
60 Faults 66
7 / 12 = 58% Break Point Conversions 6 / 17 = 35%
7 / 9 = 78% Breaks / Jeux avec Balle de Break 6 / 10 = 60%
12 aces 6

[Richie1308]

C4ill summed up pretty well this match, I'll just add a few things.

First of all, that C4ill played at an amazing level in the 3rd and 4th set, I couldn't do anything. His returns were deep and was very aggressive, not letting me the time to breathe and to adjust my shots. I had to wait until 1-1 0-30 on my serve in the 5th to make a strong comeback in the party while I was really pushed in the corner. At this moment I didn't feel good at all, I had been dominated since more than 2 sets and I was about to put myself in a very complicated situation.

Here, I took my "balls" on my hand and took maximum risks on my shots, very hazardous. And despite having 0 first balls, I survived in this game in ultra-short points except one. After this, I converted my only break point on his next serve, finally giving me the advantage in score since a long time which I was able to keep until the end, fully taking advantage of a more hesitating C4ill who lost a part of his very offensive way of playing.

And now, after those 2 epic matches, Butcher is on my road, ouch ! Preparing for a terrible fight once again.

[butcher]

butcher (Lopez) def. Richie(Tsonga) 6-3 6-2 5-7 6-4



1st, 2nd set:
I felt like Richie needs some time to reach his best level and it helped me win the 1st set. I almost led 4-0 but he saved 2 break points and kept himself into the set, also had a break point for 4-3 and his serve but he did not convert it so i won the set.
I felt that he is raising his game since the end of the 1st set, had an easy game for 1-0 lead but was not consistent later, he had many unforced errors in the set.

3rd set:
Real fight has just begun. we had a very long game on 1-1 but he managed to serve it out. Great battle on my serve. He had two break points in this game, but failed to convert them. We played some really good rally on one break point where he failed to take his chances. also, two aces helped me a lot i managed to break him on 3-3 and lead 5-3. 5-4, serving for the set. some noob errors and great play by richie and i lost my service game. had a break point game after, didnt convert it and lost my next service game. 7-5 for richie.

4th set:
Not very good for confidence, serving for the match and now i almost feet like im closer to losing the game than winning it Fortunately, i managed to calm down and forget the last set and break him at 1-1. two break points for me on 3-1. richie played great rally there, of course, corrupted in dmo i felt like i need to take this, to easily close the match but i failed. i served for the set once again and was sweating once again 3rd set was in my head again. wanted to do s&v but couldnt hit 1st serves . very tough but i managed to win at 40-30.

Congratulations to richie who showed great mental strength at times and some fantastic play at the moments, but he was not consistent as usual (or tsonga wasnt) so i managed to beat best itst player i played against. finally
now, eager to see who will be my next opponent...

[VMoe86]

Let's summarize this Wimbledon of me, now that I have lost in SF against Vramvrim. Even though I haven't won any title this season, I felt that I could keep up with the new generation and at RG could even beat butcher. The loss against Richie at RG QF was a tough one, it showed me that my level was there. It was tough to make a character choice for Wimbledon, but I felt my mission as Federer was not finished.

What kept me going this season outside of Grand Slam tournaments was the chance of getting to number one in the ranking. This Wimbledon here was my last chance for number one, because Richie has dominated this season so much -- me not reaching the final and him winning Wimbledon, he would have been number one, without me ever getting there!

Richie pulling out those matches against pidzi and C4iLL and winning the 3rd set against butcher I thought he would grab that number one, but him losing in the SF and me reaching the SF was enough in the end. Clearly, Richie will take over that spot very soon, either after Montreal + Cincinnati, at the latest after US Open and he totally deserves it!

Path to SF for me was not too difficult: Mickael48 (Federer), then isaldor (Wawrinka) makes a bad match, inseedious (Gasquet) gave me some tough time end of 2nd and start of 3rd set and Elias (Gasquet) couldn't do anything against me (against inseedious I was at least forced to come in, against Elias I approached the net only two times).

Now let's talk about the SF against Vramvrim. He dispatched his opponents even more easily on his way to the SF (6-0, 6-1, 6-0 against tdbchess made me ) than I did. He beat butcher at AEGON International and even the net rushing butcher had Average Rally Length over 8 with him -- I expected a match lasting two hours and I got one.

SF: Vramvrim (Goffin) defeats VMoe86 (Federer) 4-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3, 6-0



I'd have to rewatch to give details about some things, so this is a good sign: I don't remember too much of this loss. Congrats to Vramvrim for pulling this one out, I did not have anything left in the last set and a half (which makes some stats for the whole match look bad for me, but that's it), that much the previous happenings took out of me mentally. Good luck to him in the final, or rather to butcher I have to say. Let's try a summary of the happenings, nevertheless.

1st set we started exchanging some breaks, I think I was up 3-1 at one point, then he was up 4-3 with a break (he made my 1st serve useless and me his 2nd serve, I should have looked at that stat after 1st set or 2nd set, but I was too focused on grabbing something to drink). With some inspiration I manage to take this set, where we both had 37 points and an Average Rally Length of 11 -- says a lot about our respective Stamina levels.

2nd set he was quickly up 3-1 and I simply could not do anything anymore with Stamina under 50%. So, serving at 1-3 down, I was like "Let's forget this set and S&V to get Stamina back!", but to my surprise it worked and I held comfortably, getting a good amount of Stamina back. Suddenly, I could dominate on his service game and break back, I was back in this set! I don't remember if there were further breaks from 3-3 to 6-6 (I don't think there were), so we headed to a tie break. I managed to tough this one out and my Net Approaches paid off in this set, mixing it up and keeping him busy. Sill, Average Rally Length was over 10 shots.

3rd set he was serving first, I broke him immediately, but could not hold, 1-1. Then I break him again, 2-1, but cannot consolidate. It then goes to 4-4, where I had one (or more) BP. He gets out of this game, I felt like I had match point in that situation. Next game, he then got to a set point me serving to stay in the set at 4-5. It was some exchange at the net on set point, my volley would have gone out, but his character played the volley and I won the point. I gave him the set then, but with it also the believe to come back.

4th set, same as 3rd set: We exchange breaks to get to 2-2, but this time I had double game point at 2-1, 40-15, to consolidate the break: A costly mistake due to taking a Short Accel too early on one gamepoint was increasing my frustration. I think we were close to the two hours mark right now and there was no signs of him having a bad patch soon and it was not just Stamina in TE, but also some mental Stamina that I was running out of. I started making more and more mistakes in those long rallies, of which we had plenty due to under 50% OE. He started countering the net game well, so there were only few chances to come in successfully. This led to him winning this 4th set by breaking me at 4-3 and concluding on his 3rd set point on serve.

5th set, I simply ran out of gas, too many errors.

I could have won this in 3 or 4 sets, but I also could have been down 0-2 sets, could have lost in 3 or 4 sets. This shows how close everything was in the first 4 sets. Another tough loss to my list, but as usual: I will keep on going!

Next tournament for me is US Open, which is fortunately 6 weeks (+ 1st Round Bye) away. No need to play anything else but the Grand Slams now for me (and WTF if I qualify for it). So close here to make the final, but Vramvrim deserves to be there. I will see how I prepare for US Open, but I feel like not touching TE for two weeks now and afterwards I'm two weeks on holidays. Let's see who will be my Rosol, Darcis or Stakhovsky there.

PS: When I look at both SFs, there have been like 100 Net Approaches in each one. Vramvrim and myself with a bit under 60% won, butcher and Richie a bit more above 60% won (since these two are simply better at the net than Vramvrim and me). Compared to previous Mod Versions (1.13 for example), does not look really different regarding the percentages.

PPS: .dmo file almost 1 MB large.

2013-07-20.23-09 - VMoe8 vs Vramv 6-4 7-6 4-6 3-6 0-6.dmo

(968.11 KiB) Downloaded 195 times

[C4iLL]

Another great decisive set VMoe Vramvrim became the second guy to recover from 2 sets down.

About the percentage of points won at the net, I'm the first person surprised by this. It's obviously harder to volley on this version with a clear indirect decrease in jump, I'm not dreaming, a lot of people feel it as well.

Maybe these SF players progress and improved the timing to come at the net ? In my opinion, the volley is currently mostly efficient on the first volley, to conclude points, but nothing more. I mean before, you could catch a lot of passings that are currently not reachable anymore. Btw, this could easily be proven by a video

[Vramvrim]

Well VMoe said it all, I don't have much to add. i'll just say that he's a great player with great sportsmanship and wish him best luck for the next Slam. As someone who has lost from 2 sets and a break up in 3rd and 4th set myself, I can only advice him to forget it as quickly as possible.

After losing the two first sets I felt like an idiot since I think I could have won both, but I told myself to forget it and to keep fighting. Even when I was a break down I knew it was far from over with such close rallies and troublesome service games for both of us. Game at 4-4 in the third was key point, had to save BP to prevent him serving for the match. Then the set ended like he explained. Got broken once more at the start of 4th set, managed to break back. At this point I was pretty exhausted in real life, I don't know what kept me going. But he was as well and after long and gruelling rallies with empty stamina bars I got the break at 4-3 and closed the set.

Then he was just too tired after 2 hours of play. I had the momentum so it was easier for me, broke in first game and didn't look back.

In the end, the match slowly turned on my side because of tiredness, both from our players in TE and in real life. It was easier for me with Goffin's defensive skills in these conditions.

Now I will play Butcher tonight, unsurprisingly grass courts seems to suit his offensive game very well. He dominated Richie and should have won in 3, and I don't think I will have the same ease on his serve than yesterday with Fed's serve, so I expect it to be very tough. I hope I will play better as the match goes on like in SF, and then we'll see.

[butcher]

butcher(Lopez) def. Vramvrim(Goffin) 6-4 6-4 4-6 6-4



just a short report. tough match. Vram played some amazing defense, I needed to aim perfectly to win the rally.
Fortunately for me, I was excited and eager to start the match and started with very aggressive tennis which gave me the 3-0 lead. For some reason, I felt confident before the match. This was maybe crucial for 1st set since I won only 3 points more than he did, very close.

2nd set was also very close. i had break points only in one game, just as vram did. I managed to convert mine, he failed to convert his just like in 1st set, I was trying to play very offensive tennis, risking all the time, going for the net. it worked very well in these two sets.

3rd set: I took the break immediately at the beginning but he rebroke me. My game was not as good as in first two sets, and he was improving, i felt like he has bigger chances to win this one. my net play was not as effective as before. he broke me easily in the last game with 0-40

4th set: Some very long games and rallies, finally break for me at 3-3. Then, some long game on my serve but Imanaged to pull it out without break points. 5-3, serving for match. my mental is not that good, it was not easy to serve, just like vs. richie. Fortunately, vram could not take advantage of this so i finished it with winner on 40-15. Match point corrupted in dmo, classic

You can see how tough and close match it was from the stats. Biggest difference in points won was in 3rd set when vram won 38, me 34. this says it all. congratulations for vram and great tournament he had in wimbledon. Amazing comeback against vmoe and not so far away from winning the final. Produced some fantastic shots during the match. Overall, I think it was great match with some amazing rallies, winners and defense.
Not a bad feeling, being the winner of wimbledon, my favorite tournament. grass suited me good i think, especially with lopez. hope i will be able to be good on hard courts also. but, for now, im taking a break from TE.
see ya!

[VMoe86]

Really close match indeed, only 4 points total difference. Very similar to the first 4 sets in the SF I had against Vram (first set equal points, second set I had four points more than him, third set he had five points more or so and fourth set eight points advantage to him). Shows how tough it is at the top right now, very small margins, every point is so important. Funny how SF with Vram was so return-dominated, the F more serve-dominated.

Congrats again butcher, from our exhibitions I knew you'd have a really good shot at winning Wimbledon, now you have won it -- having stopped the French Mafia once again!

About the percentage of points won at the net, I'm the first person surprised by this. It's obviously harder to volley on this version with a clear indirect decrease in jump, I'm not dreaming, a lot of people feel it as well.

Maybe these SF players progress and improved the timing to come at the net ? In my opinion, the volley is currently mostly efficient on the first volley, to conclude points, but nothing more. I mean before, you could catch a lot of passings that are currently not reachable anymore. Btw, this could easily be proven by a video

I'm not denying that the jump and thus the net play has changed. I know it very well. My theory is: What you take away on the jump by having a lower Run Acceleration you also take away time for getting to the volley and hit a good passing shot. Thus it is still possible to have such percentages on Net Approaches, but it plays out differently.

As it is, me being away a bit before US Open, Elias' PC not working right now, some testers on holidays as well in the next weeks -- don't expect huge changes for US Open (if there is going to be a new version at all).